The Corpse in their skin
by Clementive
Summary: At home, they never talked about work or the corpses they carried in their skin. NejiTen Reverse Fake Dating!AU. Police!AU. Dark-ish. Rated for non-explicit sexual content.


_**I like writing twisted relationships, that's all I'm gonna say for myself.**_

_**Please, read at your own discretion if you're underage. The sexual content is non-explicit, but it's still very adult-y.**_

_**This is inspired by Rochelle's (bunrising or tired-siapo on Tumblr) prompt of Reverse Fake Dating, where people pretend to hate each other when they are dating. Except my hand slipped.**_

_**Summary: At home, they never talked about work or the corpses they carried in their skin. NejiTen Reverse Fake Dating!AU. Dark-ish.**_

-X-

His wife was dead, Neji thought as he silently approached her shapeless form thrown across the bed.

A part of her always appeared dead; her body, her stare. She slept like a corpse. She often stared at him, unmoving when she was displeased. In the winter, she would press her icy lips to his and muttered that his eyes looked dead. And he was a piece of her, just as she was a piece of him. Dying pieces of each other, that was what they were.

They led their lives like they were dead, sharing bits of each other grudgingly.

"I need to go to work," Neji said roughly, so she would stir awake.

He sat on the bed, disturbing the cocoon of bedsheets she had wrapped around herself the moment he was gone from her bed. He tied his tie, feeling her shift, pulling at the bedsheets.

"Mhmmm, but do you need to wake me to tell me that?"

Her hand emerged, gripping his arm, and he paused. He didn't glance back at her, only the weight of her, the scent of her, guiding him as he bent down to pull on his socks.

"I'm just saying, it may be a long day, there's a double homicide down-"

"Tsk tsk," she dug her nails in his arm, then whirled her hand, her body away from him. She rolled off the bed, still holding the bedsheets to her body. She circled the bed and grabbed her phone lying on the floor.

"We don't talk about work," she said flatly, flipping through her messages. "That's what I like about us. We don't talk about work."

She looked at him, her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Don't wait for me," Neji said simply because it was what he needed to say, and what she needed to hear.

"There you go, love," she sing-sang with a savagery that was unique to her.

She brushed by him, patting his chest distractedly, by feel, as if she wasn't sure where he was in the room.

"Can I wish you a good day at work?" he called after her, smiling ruefully.

She closed the bathroom door without answering, and soon he could hear the sound of water rushing.

They wore separate skins at home, and at work. As if they could die in an instant. As if they liked the idea of their bodies being unrecognizable to one another. Under the wrong light, the wrong angle. Anything.

He took off his wedding ring, and set it on the table by the door.

He didn't glance back.

They needed this space between them, this anonymity to exist. To coexist.

-X-

"You're late," Kiba grunted, and the cold air spread thick white across his mouth.

The forest was grey, the ground, frozen under their feet. The blood flecked dead leaves, contrasting with the colourless scenery. And it gleamed, gross pieces of ruby, as if frozen.

Neji strode alongside him, his lips set in a grim line. They avoided looking at the trail of blood. They slapped on gloves, as they ducked under the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene.

They flashed their badge at the officers in uniform.

They couldn't look away from the blood then.

"Oh sweet jesus. Thank god, I haven't eaten yet," Kiba held the back of his hand over his mouth, his breath thickening.

Neji sat on his heels, his head cocked to the side as he took in the cadavers. Their limbs were spread out, reaching toward each other. He noted the woman's half-eaten nails, caked in blood and mud, and the man's untied shoes. The man had been beaten savagely, but the woman seemed barely disturbed, despite her blue lips and unseeing eyes.

Neji took out his notepad from his coat and neatly wrote out a few theories.

"Hn. Who's the ME?"

"Your favourite one," Kiba replied with a smirk.

"Haruno?" Neji looked up, with an eyebrow raised. "It's unlike her to be late."

"No, he meant your other favourite one," Dr Tenten Morino said icily from behind me.

Neji closed his eyes briefly, his nostrils pinched.

"Dr Morino," he nodded curtly in greeting, and he slowly stood up.

Roughly, she set her medical kit at his feet.

Neji flinched.

"Inspector Asshole," she smiled acidly, then beamed at Kiba. "Kiba, darling, always a pleasure. How's the baby?"

Kiba puffed his chest and grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, you know... I can't sleep. Ino can't sleep," Kiba said chuckling to himself and he held out his phone to her. "I took it this morning. Look!"

Tenten inclined her head toward the phone, smiling, her face flushed. Neji breathed sharply, his mouth twisted in annoyance.

"Very cute. What's her name again?"

"Inori."

"Sooo preciouusss!" Tenten made a face at the phone.

"Care to tell us anything about the crime scene, Dr Morino," Neji interrupted, and Kiba flinched, his eyes drifting back to the corpses.

Kiba gulped and put his phone back in his coat's pocket.

"This is blood," Tenten nodded toward the dark traces on the ground, "and these are two corpses, Inspector Obvious," Tenten looked up at him, her smile compact on her lips, matching her sarcastic tone. "See what I did there? Mix-and-matching your nickname, and so early in the morning too."

Kiba masked his laughter with a cough. Neji glared at him, and he looked away, shifting from one foot to the other to keep warm, his notepad trembling in his grasp.

Tenten winked at Inuzuka.

"That's why I like you. You can laugh at a joke."

"Yes, very amusing," Neji said disdainfully.

Kiba elbowed him, coughing loudly, his eyes widened in warning. Neji waited as Tenten circled the body. _She was so slow_. And she hummed as she worked. She observed bodies, dissecting them until they were barely recognizable, a jumble of nerves and muscles and tissues.

Somehow in her warmth, she was colder than any bodies he had ever seen.

Neji shifted uncomfortably as she leaned close to the bodies, mouthing lyrics to herself.

"There are two contusions to the head. Post-mortem, from the looks of it," she pointed her finger at his chest, while still looking at the head. "You're looking for a blade 13 inches, 3 mm thick... Been dead for less than 12 hours. No sign of asphyxia, but someone did try that way first. Possibly the woman interrupted, they ran and stab-stab," she mimed the gesture, eliciting a gulp from Kiba, and Neji glared at her, his pen frozen over his notepad.

"You can't know that, Dr Morino," Neji hissed through clenched teeth.

He hated how she played how the scene of each murder based on suppositions. She brought them to life and guided them back to their death, emotionless, childishly. And he hated above all how she was right more often than not.

Tenten examined the other cadaver, her face close to the woman's breathless chest.

Neji shifted, and looked away in disgust. Did she need to be that close?

"Same blade for this one. Signs of struggle, but this one wasn't beaten up. She took more time to die though."

"Don't you need to run some tests to establish that?"

"What? Is that what Haruno would do?" Tenten stood up and walked over to them. "I know my blades. So do I get bonus points?"

"No."

Tenten looked up at him, inches from him, and they glared at each other, her smile floating over her lips. Her cheeks and her nose were flushed from the cold.

His jaw clenched.

His gaze drifted to her lips.

"Are you staring at my lips, right now?"

"Hn."

"I just touched a cadaver," Tenten rolled her eyes and brushed by him. "I bet you're into some weird BDSM shit."

"When can we expect the report?" Kiba interrupted, pressing a calming hand to Neji's chest.

He pushed Neji back firmly, slipping between the two of them. Tenten's eyes still gleamed with amusement as she shifted her gaze to Kiba.

"I don't know," she shrugged, her voice cheerful. "Depends. I have two other crime scenes after this one. It's the vacations. Christmas is just that time of the year when people realize they hate people," Tenten sighed and closed her medical kit.

She waved at the scene with grand gestures, looking over at the tech team.

"You photograph all of this, then bag it, and then roll it back to my morgue, please. Thank you!" She flashed a grin at the technicians.

"Thank you for your help, Tenten," Kiba said with a small nod.

"Sure, no problem. Tell Ino I'll call her this weekend to see that angel you guys made."

Kiba beamed at her, and she waved back. When she was out of sigh, he looked over at Neji still writing on his notepad.

"Are you?" Kiba cleared his throat, his body swaying, from the cold.

"What?" Neji snapped.

"You know... Into weird BDSM?" He twirled his finger in the air.

Neji glared at him.

"Oooh, so touchy," Kiba chuckled and clapped him on the back. "Come on, let's get out of here."

-X-

His wife's shoulders tensed when Neji stepped into the kitchen.

He stopped, taking in the paperwork spread across the counter, pictures thrown across the floor and arranged on the kitchen table. Dead eyes everywhere, never staring back. The speakers still blared with music he called senseless, until she found the remote and stopped it.

His messenger back thudded onto the floor.

"What," he flinched from the sound of his voice, a croak, a timid, tired whisper.

His hands pulled at his tie. Anger and hatred swirled inside him. And love buried beneath it all.

"What are you doing?" Neji spat in a incredulous tone.

"Are you snapping because you're taking your work problems home, love?" Slowly, she turned toward him, her hands gripping the counter. She pressed her body against it, her eyes unflinching, her body moving to shield her work.

"You brought home case files," Neji whispered.

"You said you would be gone all day."

"So?" he snapped and roughly pried the refrigerator open to grab a bottle of water.

"So, I didn't break the rules," she said forcing her voice in a serene tone, as she started piling up her paperwork. "You should have called."

The refrigerator slammed shut.

"Hn. I should have?" Neji laughed sardonically.

She pinched her lips, shook her head stiffly, and she slammed her paperwork on the counter. The sound whipped between them, an explosion, a death sentence. He stared at her chest, the picture next to her elbow showing a carved out ribcage.

"Honestly? Yes. It's your goddamn fault," she hissed, prowling toward him. She stopped inches from his face. "You fucked up the rules."

"You made them up," he hissed back, grabbing her waist, his thumb caressing her hipbones.

She had once showed him how skin carried the sound, the pressure of heartbeat. He tightened his grip on her. 'Sometimes, I'm scared it's you who's lying behind the yellow tape,' he thought, and inclined his head toward her.

Her fingers travelled up his arms, feeling his protruding veins. She was rough. She was hesitant.

"Don't flirt at work," she licked his neck, and he gripped her head, panting, holding back.

Dead eyes behind her.

He had dead eyes.

She dissected dead eyes.

"Don't bring your work home," Neji growled deep in his throat, and she put her hand there, his bones speaking to her.

He kissed her hard, his hands pining her head into place, his teeth biting her lips. She moaned, her hand gripping his shirt. She pushed against him, struggling, but he left her no room to move, to breathe. He rubbed his tongue against hers before pulling away.

"Take off your shirt," she panted, her lips rosy.

Neji wiped at her lips, his eyes on them, expecting blood. He wiped harder. He always expected blood.

He closed his eyes and kissed her again, letting her unbuttoned his shirt. She pulled and pushed, fighting back against his rough demanding kisses.

He heard a tear.

He grabbed her ass, his fingers sinking into her flesh. He pressed her against his erection.

"The bedroom?" Neji pleaded and unclasped her bra through her shirt.

_Not here._

_Not here. _

_Too much death here. _

"Yeah..." she tugged at his belt.

She shuddered, when he bit her neck, his hand clawing at her back as they slipped under her shirt. He took it off, shoving it to the side, and he kept pushing, shoving her toward the bedroom. She kicked the door open just as he tore her bra from her.

He disregarded it on the floor.

She grabbed his hair, and he sucked a breath in, her mouth hot against his ear.

"Hair pulling or no, today?" she licked the shell of his ear, and his hands sank in her hair pulling at her hair ties.

He closed his eyes.

"Yes," he breathed out, his heart pounding.

She relaxed her grip on his hair, biting and sucking on his earlobe instead.

He growled.

He roughly gripped her arms.

He threw her on the bed. She stopped him when he tried to pull down her pants. She barred her teeth at him, her naked chest heaving quickly.

"Too fast, then?" he growled, and straddled her, his knees sinking into the bed by her thighs. He let a finger glide down the side of her flushed face.

He kissed her cheek, and her body relaxed against his.

"Come here," she panted.

They lost themselves in their skin with each pound, moaning their names, bringing them back from the dead. And they tore at each other, more violent than tender.

After they came, he covered her with his body, the two of them still trembling. He laced their fingers together, their wedding rings clicking against each other.

"Are you okay?" He nuzzled her neck where he had bitten her.

"Yeah. Are you?" She turned her neck and kissed his cheek where she had hit him.

"Better..." he muttered and he pressed his forehead to her shoulder, his hand caressing her spine. "I missed you all day," he said silently.

He moved to slip out of her, but she squeezed his hand.

"Stay a bit?"

"Alright."

He lied back on top of her, shifting his weight so he wouldn't crush her. His arms surrounded her like a cocoon. He kissed the back of her neck, tasting her sweat, the faintest trace of her perfume.

"What do you want to eat?" Tenten whispered and turned her head to kiss his upper arm.

"Do you want to go out tonight? It has been a while."

"I'll scream if we go to Hinata's again."

Neji frowned at her, his cheek pressed against hers.

"But we know she keeps her kitchen clean, and the food is good."

"Neji..." Tenten whined.

And he was a little more himself because she had used his name. He closed his eyes, and it awoke no cadaver beneath his eyelids. And she felt like his wife again, not the medical examiner.

She nudged his shoulder.

"Alright," he laughed quietly, and pecked her on the cheek. "I'll book a table elsewhere."

He grabbed his pants, his fingers closing around his phone in his pocket. He lied back on the bed next to her, one hand resting on her calf, his fingers following the curve of his teeth marks.

"Thanks, love." Tenten said, and she rest her head on his chest.

-X-

"I said don't do it!" Kiba snapped, but Neji wrestled his arm out of his grip.

Kiba swore under his breath, glancing over at the captain's office. He hesitated, biting his lip. Neji dialled the extension of the morgue, the phone almost falling off the desk when he was done. He panted, anger boiling inside him. _How dare she?_

"Where's my report?" He barked into the phone the second he heard the click of her answering.

"_Who knows?_" Tenten sighed wistfully. "_Did you see it?_"

"Why did Uzumaki get his before mine? His homicide was two days after mine," he shouted.

"_Mmmm, doesn't Haruno also get her files mixed up sometimes? My bad. Maybe you should nag her, so she'll take over my case. Oh wait, you already tried that_," she said flatly.

He opened his mouth and closed it, his eyes widened in surprised. He had expected her shouts, her piercing and sarcastic laughter. Lost, he glanced quickly over at Kiba. He mouthed, 'what is she saying?' to him, before Neji turned away from him, the receiver pressed more tightly against his ear.

"_What? You thought she wouldn't tell me?_" Tenten drawled out and he heard the sound of something unwrapped. "_Or did I get your tongue?_" she added her mouth full.

"I wouldn't have if you weren't taking your time," Neji said quietly and sat on the corner of his desk.

His wife was on the phone, he couldn't help think. His wife. His wife was upset.

"_Are you saying I'm not working hard enough?_" she asked, and her voice chilled him to the bones.

"I'm saying- Why the fuck did you hang up?" Neji shouted, his eyes wild.

He almost said it then: 'My wife is upset.'

Shakily, Neji grabbed his coat, his hands palming his pockets for his keys.

"Because I want the report," Kiba hissed back at him, his face ferocious. "Call her back and apologize. God, Neji. What were you thinking?"

"I'm going home."

"Yeah, you do that," Kiba shook his head at him. "Cool off, then apologize. To. Her. With flowers or whatever. God, can you just be nice to her? She was nice to you until you- HEY, we're not done talking!"

"Yes, we are."

-X-

The television played mutely in the background, blurry images of a match of soccer he was only half-interested in.

Neji watched her out the corner of his eyes. He didn't know how to approach his wife without slaughtering the medical examiner.

Tenten roughly turned the page of her magazine, her legs thrown over his in their usual stance. His mouth twitched.

He cleared his throat, caressing her legs.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes." she said lightly, and he recoiled at her indifferent tone.

He glanced at her wedding band for reassurance. '_If she's wearing it, she's home_,' he thought. '_Otherwise... Otherwise, she's at the morgue. __Otherwise, she isn't my wife._'

Tenten always knew how to contain him, how to reach out for him, and shut him out. She handled bodies, while he handled criminals. This was why they didn't mix, wife and medical examiner, and husband and detective inspector.

"Do you want to watch something else?" Neji asked, turning his head toward her.

She slapped the magazine on the coffee table, throwing her legs over the floor. He watched her walk out of the room, petrified.

"I'm going for a run."

"I'll fix dinner," Neji called out after her.

Tenten slammed the door, and her wedding band still tinkled on the table by the door.

-X-

Neji handed her the flowers, uncomfortable. Flowers were senseless here, he couldn't help thinking.

The morgue sweated death in each gleaming surface, cold. The metallic surface where cadavers lay gave no reflection, except distorted colours.

The flowers stood out with their short life span.

"What is this?" Tenten narrowed her eyes at the flowers, her lips twisted in a snarl carved out of steel.

She tapped her pen on her notes, her other gloved hand set on the microscope.

"I'm analyzing tissues. I'm busy. Shoo!"

"These are flowers," Neji replied dryly, the pressure in his chest building. "For an apology." He added disdainfully.

Tenten glanced up and down at him, her face placid. She turned back to her microscope and pressed her eye against the lens.

"You brought flower to a morgue, Inspector. It's very morbid. And funny if you meant it."

"I did," he said through his teeth. "I did mean it."

"Say it then," she sing-sang.

"What?"

"'I apologize, Dr Morino, for saying Haruno is better than you.'"

Stunned, he lowered the flowers on her table, his hands then finding his hips. He laughed quietly, his features softening.

"This is what you're mad about?"

"Don't take that tone with me here!" Tenten shrilled, and the whole morgue seemed to swallowed her voice, and pounded it back onto him later.

Coldly, Neji approached her, his head inclined to the side, his gaze shifting to the piece of tissue on the petri dish. Her hand trembled around her pen. His hand almost reached up to feel the curve of her neck. But they were dead now. Breathing corpses that have seen too much.

"Fine," Neji said finally and grabbed back the flowers.

"Fine," Tenten snapped back.

She turned back toward her work, and he made his way to the exit.

"You haven't apologized," she called after him in her cutting voice.

"This isn't the right way," he said simply.

"What?"

"That's Inuzuka's plan. Flowers and apology."

"I said, don't take that tone here."

Roughly, he dumped the flowers in the garbage can by the door. His palm on the door, he shook his head, his eyes pressed tightly shut.

"Hn. Can I-"

"_Get out,_" her voice boomed again.

The morgue smelled, gleamed of death.

Violently, he pushed the door open, the pressure in his chest giving in to the corpse in his skin.

"Fine."

"Fine."

-X-

He undressed quietly, his skin buzzing with the images of the rotting kid they had found in the alley. Tenten was sprawled across the bed, limbs thrown around mindlessly, carelessly. He sat on the bed, his joints misaligned.

He creaked, his head heavy with death and gore.

He creaked like a cursed man.

A man.

Was he even that? A man?

He held his head in his hands. Her arm circled her, an anchor, and he breathed through his nose, through the pain.

Tenten threw the bedsheets over him and pulled him to her. He held her to his chest, his face pressed against her hair. He kissed the side of her head, her neck, her shoulder, resting there.

Her fingers combed through his hair, removing his hair ties and his rubber band.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean it," he muttered feeling her touch pause. "I just hate hate... I just hate you sometimes."

"Me too," she admitted quietly, and her fingers moved across his scalp once more. "We are compatible here, with your family, with mine... with friends. But, we aren't compatible there," she hesitated. "It's the corpses."

He caressed her thigh, restraining himself from digging into her skin, tearing at her, searching for his wife amidst all the carnage.

"They're everywhere," he added quietly.

Everywhere in them.

Everywhere surrounding them.

"Say my name," he muttered against her.

"This is why I don't want us to bring work home. Home should be for us only. No corpses."

"I know, you're right," he kissed her chest. "Sometimes, they just follow me anyway." he kissed her again, more urgently. "Other times, I just need you."

"Neji..."

Tenten squeezed his hand, their wedding bands rubbing, grating against each other, their pain starting there. She parted her legs for him, and he felt her heart pounded.

He pressed his cheek to her shoulder, holding her tighter against him, as he guided himself into her.

They moved slowly, softly, their foreheads pressed together. They breathed into one another, their bones weary, dormant, abandoned by their usual violence.

He choked against her, fitting in the crevasses of the images plaguing her mind. Skin turned inside-out.

Kid ghosts were always the hardest to shake off.

-X-

'_Heat it up for 20 sec_,' the message on the cake read.

Tenten cocked her head to the side, her fingers tapping on the top of the refrigerator's door. She snatched the box out of the fridge and bumped her hip against the door to close it. She removed the lid and propped it in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Tenten turned back toward her table, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was a bag of her favourite candies and a box of expensive chocolate.

He hated the morgue, just as much as she hated seeing him here.

She scowled.

"I hate him so much."

The microwave beeped behind her and she took her plate of cake back to her table. She poked at the bag of candies, and pushed the chocolate box out of the way.

She dialled his extension number on her phone, and her fork sank into the cake.

"_Dr __Morino__, what a surprise._"

She rolled her eyes at his tone.

"Fine. You can have your fucking report."

"_Hn._ _You __do__ your work, __sometimes,__ then._"

"Should I put it back at the bottom of the pile, Inspector Asshole?"

"_No!_" he said quickly, and she smirked.

"Say it," she ordered sweetly.

He hissed impatiently, and she could picture him, his lips set in a straight line, the receiver lowered to his jaw, as he tried to keep his temper in check.

"_I apologize._"

"Good. You're lucky my husband put me in a good mood with cake and candies."

"_Candies are bad for your teeth,_" Neji answered flatly.

"God, I hate you."

She slammed the receiver down.

Her cellphone beeped moments later.

'I love you.'

-X-

_**The version on AO3 has a little more spice if you're in the mood for that. You can find the fic under the same name, and my account is also under the same name. **_


End file.
